Saints ran 62 offensive plays, and had 414 total yards
Saints much more balanced in their play breakdown: 33 called passes / 29 called runs
Babineaux immediately stood out on film for the Falcons defense: Strong at the point of attack, Good lateral movement
Bush 43 yards on 1st + 10 came out of 1 back / 3 WR personnel, Delay action in the backfield with TE Shockey releasing off the LOS as if he’s running a route – Pass action to set up the run game
Bush beat LB Boley on his 5 yard TD catch – Saints spread the field to dictate the matchup
Saints had success running the ball out of pass looks, They utilized a lot of delay action, OL pass sets and Shockey “easy” release
Payton a terrific play caller: Shockey 21 yards in the second quarter a great example, Playing [...]

Falcons ran 63 offensive plays, and had 414 total yards
Falcons 7-12 on third down conversions
Falcons 4 trips inside the red zone, 3 TD
The only negative for the Falcons offense was Turner and Norwood combined for 23-79, 3.5 yards per carry
The designed cutback is a staple of the Falcons running game, and they had success with it again on the second play of the game: Turner 26 yards out of 2 back / 3 WR personnel
A lot of flow and misdirection to the Falcons offense, both in the run game and the pass game, especially off Ryan designed movement
Ryan’s interception was a misread: He read “quarters”, and it was “Tampa 2” behind a 3 man rush– It was well disguised by the Saints before the snap, They showed a 4 across [...]

Chargers ran 68 offensive plays, and controlled the ball for more than 34 minutes
Chargers 9-18 on third down conversions
In the first half, the Chargers ran 37 offensive plays and gained 246 total yards; They were ahead 27-7 at halftime
Rivers badly underthrew Jackson on the 46 yard completion on the first series, It would have been a TD with a good throw – I was surprised that Jackson ran by Asomugha, and Asomugha did not show the recovery speed to catch up
Tomlinson ran hard, He attacked downhill with aggression – Hester was the FB, He’s not a very strong lead blocker
Chargers went back to basics in this game: Foundation was the run, with a focus on “Power”, which has been their staple run with Tomlinson
Chargers 15 play, 96 yard TD in the first half [...]

- Michael Turner had two big runs in the first quarter. On one, he must have gotten 15 yards after first contact. That’s what he does best.

- Matt Ryan’s INT in the first quarter was probably because he didn’t see CB Jason David at all who had a great break on the ball.

- Ryan made a great throw on a quick slant from his own 1-yardline on a third down play for a first down. He led Roddy White and threaded the pass right past the defender. That’s the kind of stick throws QBs have to make.

- Ryan’s long completion to White early in the second quarter for a big gain down field was really luck. The defender fell down. But the timing between the two have is really evident. They will be a great combo for many years to come.

- Ryan had an exceptional first half. The touch he put on the ball on the fade TD catch to Brian Finneran was great. It had to be a good pass or Finneran would have landed out of bounds.

- Ryan has a great sense of pocket movement and when to step up to create functional space. I can’t [...]

Matt Schaub at Green Bay – Keep in mind he hasn’t played in a while so he could be rusty. However, the Packer secondary has struggled of late so the numbers should be there in the end since he has a lot of passing options and the Packer secondary isn’t that deep.

Matt Cassel at Seattle – Count on him bouncing back in a big way this week against a struggling secondary.

Running Back

Chester Taylor at Detroit – The Lion run defense has really regressed of late. How much? How about 194 yards/2.8 TDs per game over their last four! Taylor will get his share of carries in order for you to start him as your #3 RB/flex player.

LenDale White vs. Cleveland – He’s pretty much a matchup player at this point and he has a good one this week since the Titans [...]

Steelers ran 68 offensive plays, and controlled the ball for more than 35 minutes
Steelers 8-16 on third down conversions – They were in the red zone 6 times, scored 3 TD
Steelers balanced with their play breakdown: 35 called passes / 33 called runs
Wright started again at DE for the inactive Warren, Woods at OLB for Thomas
Patriots 3-3-5 package features Lewis Sanders as the 5th DB, and Guyton was the third LB with Mayo and Vrabel – Patriots also featured a 2-3-6 package that had Webster as the 6th DB
Parker looked better than in recent weeks, but still did not have the downhill burst that made him special
Vrabel interception a terrific play, A function of great recognition just as much as athletic ability
Steelers went some no huddle on their third offensive series
Steelers continued to feature [...]

Cowboys 447 total yards on 58 offensive plays
Cowboys only 2-9 on third down conversions, yet 4 trips inside the red zone and 4 TD
Cowboys play breakdown: 35 called passes / 23 called runs (including Romo kneel down)
Holland started at LG for the Cowboys (Kosier done for the season)
With Brady injured this season, Romo the best at pocket movement in the NFL; Romeo very intuitive with uncanny ability to maintain his downfield focus in a muddied pocket, and great vision
Witten was Cowboys matchup piece in this game, They aligned him all over the formation dictating matchups and coverages
Seahawks defense did not challenge the Cowboys pass game at all, No pressure on Romo and a lot of voids in the zone coverage concepts
Few QBs read blitz pressure before the snap as well as Romo, Knows where to go with the ball and gets it out quickly – Also Romo excellent at manipulating coverage with pump fakes and shoulder rolls
Witten 7 yard TD was a great throw by Romo across his body, Kind of like Favre’s TD to Coles last week – Very hard to do, and still throw with accuracy in a [...]

- When watching parts of this game on Sunday, I thought they were in shotgun formation more. They actually came out in many one back sets under center with Le’Ron McClain getting the carries.

- One of the more underrated traits about Joe Flacco is that he looks to extend passing plays by moving around in the pocket. He won’t throw the ball away unless he has to. A great example of this was his first quarter 40-plus yard completion to Mark Clayton.

- Later in the quarter, he waited as long as he could then ran for a first down.

- McClain is so hard to bring down. He had many runs getting yards after first contact.

- Great job by Flacco of creating space on his TD throw to Todd Heap. He made a subtle move to create a better throwing lane. Flacco is clearly well ahead of where anyone thought he’d be at this point in his career.

- The one issue with McClain is that he lacks explosiveness on his runs so he actually leaves potential big plays on the field. Ray Rice isn’t really explosive either. McClain also fumbled twice in the game, but they retained possession on [...]

I have been buried since the NFL draft doing our post-draft work, 2015 projections, and more, so I didn’t get a chance to post a draft I participated in for most of May (slow draft). It’s for Athlon Sports’ fantasy magazine, so I can’t publish the entire draft. But here’s my team. This league stars 1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 1 Flex, 1 TE, 1 PK, 1 DT, 1 DL, 1 LB, 1 […]

Although it is disgustingly early for a 2015 fantasy football draft for most, we are closing in on the time of the year when a draft is at least viable. Free agency is basically over, so all we have to wait for now is the draft. I’ve also been intrigued with what our friends at myfantasyleague.com have been doing with their MFL10s. It’s a great idea for the […]

Here are the top stories I’m following for Week 17 Cleveland (7-8) at Baltimore (9-6) Brown QB situation. Brian Hoyer (right shoulder/biceps) did not practice Friday. Rookie Connor Shaw is set to start for them at Baltimore. Do they give Terrance West any snaps to evaluate him? He played 0 snaps last week. Does Josh Gordon do anything to leave us something t […]